The bright and dark sides of nonprofit trust: a dual perspective study

Interorganisational relationships between non-profit organisations (NPOs) and funders are vital to the development sector. While trust is recognised as important, there is limited consensus on its drivers or whether organisational perspectives differ, especially in increasingly challenging environments where NPOs are often subject to changing funder expectations. Drawing on 49 semi-structured interviews with NPOs and funder participants, we identify nine drivers of non-profit trust aligned with the dimensions of ability, benevolence and integrity, grouped as Foundational and Relational drivers. Foundational drivers verify competence prior to funding, while Relational drivers reflect belief in the relationship. Although non-profits benefit from a ‘halo’ of ‘doing good’, findings suggest that NPOs adapting to shifting funder expectations can jointly create a ‘darker side’, generating an ‘organisational integrity tension’.